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Saturday, October 03, 2015

The Russian government has vowed to crack down on the top 100 copyright-infringing sites, in order to shame the Top 100 brands into pulling their advertising from the pirate operations, Russia's Deputy Communications Minister Alexei Volin said this week.

"People need to come to their senses about this issue. Major brands are proud of being white-and-fluffy; so let's publish a list of all those brands that advertise on pirate sites." Wolin said this is the first step, with blacklisting sites also on the agenda.

We know that nothing upsets Putin like the sight of something where it has, legally, no place being - you know, like a Russian army brigade in Ukraine.

It's something of a turnabout for Russia to suddenly worry about music piracy, though - for years, the .ru domain consisted solely of the Pravda website and thousands of collections of mp3s you could buy for a few pence and however much money would subsequently be swiped from your credit card.